A/N: Sorry it's been another long while but I'm hoping to finally finish this fic and be done with it once and for all! (Once and for Ol?) Also, might clean up the earlier chapters; nothing major, just to fix some inconsistency in style. As always, a shoutout to FFnet author thisbrokenheartedgirl (see also 0liverWood and Katie_Bell_ on Twitter) and thanks for the reviews, favs, and follows!
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It was hard to say what possessed her (it certainly wasn't Oliver's spirit, unless he had died in the few minutes since she last saw him), but Katie Bell was determined to keep the Quidditch gears turning as per usual in the minds of her fellow Gryffindor teammates. Which, of course, meant threatening them within an inch of their lives if they didn't turn up to practise.
She'd barely had a chance to get comfortable on her broom before the others began trickling onto the field, looking (mostly) ready to fly, throw, catch, hit, dodge, and seek. Angelina initiated the traditional low-altitude warm-up lap around the pitch and Katie quickly sprinted past her, both out of exhilaration just to be flying but also with the hopes that no one would see her smiling. She thought that this must be what Oliver felt like on a good day.
Being stuck in the Hospital wing doing homework was not ever likely to constitute a 'good day' in Oliver's book, and as such, his eyebrows were worked up in taut concentration, whilst his quill was actively trying to avoid being thoughtfully chewed for the sake of education. Just as he was beginning to feel overdue a reprieve, Katie's chipper clip-clopping gait brought her to his bedside.
"How did it go?" Oliver asked eagerly, not-so-secretly hoping for a millisecond-by-millisecond account of the couple hours he had missed.
"It was alright… Better than usual, actually." She smiled as she again took up her post on the bed next to his.
"'Better than usual', aye?" He knew it was meant to be an innocuous comment, yet the words still struck at the chords of insecurity in his subconscious, which he always worked so hard to keep muffled.
"Hey…" Katie thought she espied the brief wounding of her captain's pride, fleeting though the evidence was.
Oliver shook the dark thoughts out of his head.
"Maybe I shouldn't bother coming back…" He tried to tease, hoping his tone made for convincing conviviality, though the intended mirth didn't reach through to the expression on his face.
"Don't talk like that…" Katie looked at him seriously. "I… We need you, Oliver. You're a really good captain."
Oliver shrugged and busied himself with worrying at a wrinkle in the bed linen. "Still, suppose I should start teaching my replacement sometime soon, aye, since I've only got another year… and I don't want to leave the team in a shambles."
Katie sighed softly. "You'd better start training Angelina, then."
"Err…" He glanced up at her. "Thought I'd start teaching all of you, actually… Every one of you has the potential. Even the twins, if you strapped them together."
Katie gave her captain a gentle smile. "Angelina's going to get it anyway… So, you don't need to waste your effort."
Wouldn't consider it wasted… were the words Oliver had meant to come out of his mouth, but he was distracted by the looming figure of an impatient Madam Pomfrey who was currently waiting in the wing's nurse's station.
"Ehm…" Oliver gave his Chaser a conspiratorial look. "Guess I'm not to be discharged 'til they figure out what it is I took."
"Do you really want to know?" Katie grimaced slightly.
Oliver shook his head. "But someone needs to tell Pomfrey what the potion was, as I've no idea."
"Right." Katie gave a sharp nod. "I'm on it, Capt'n."
She scrambled rather gracefully off the bed and stalked up beside the nurse's desk where Madam Pomfrey had just sat down to enjoy the cup of tea she was stirring.
"He accidentally took a love potion," Katie stated matter-of-factly to the now-rather-shaken nurse matron. "And, well, then he ingested an untested love potion antidote."
"Stars in heaven!" Poppy Pomfrey choked out, nearly dropping her teacup. "Who on Earth gave–"
"Err, thanks – I'm feeling great!" Oliver suddenly materialised at Katie's side, all dressed and with his school things in hand, and hastily led his dutiful Chaser out of the Hospital wing and quite out of Madam Pomfrey's literal and metaphorical reach.
Katie shook her head in awe, laughing once they had reached the nearest staircase. "You are very bad, Mr. Wood."
"Aye, but I couldn't risk my best Beaters being suspended for making unauthorised potions, could I?" He smiled, rather pleased with himself for his quick thinking. "No harm done, aye…"
Quidditch… She sighed.
"…Hey, Capt'n?"
"We're nae on the pitch, Katie…" Oliver nodded benevolently. "Really – you are allowed to call me 'Oliver'."
"And yet you can still call me 'Bell'…" She rolled her eyes at him, then grew quiet for a moment. "Capt'n… What do you last remember happening… before?"
"Don't know, really…" Oliver rubbed the back of his neck, whilst preoccupied with perusing his memory. "I think I was doing Runes, and then…"
He hesitated. "You… err…"
"Did we…?" It was nothing but a blur to him, but something about that particular blur made his heart beat a little faster in his chest. "Did I do… anything… while I was affected by that potion?"
"N-no…" She blushed furiously, nearly tripping up the stairs as she shook her head. "All we did was talk, and you kept saying things like that I was pretty…"
"Oh." Oliver shrugged a little. "That nae sounds too bad…"
"And then, just before you passed out," Katie sighed a bit louder than she had intended. "You said you… really loved Quidditch."
Oliver's shoulders slumped in response, and he stared forlornly at the floor. Even when he wasn't himself, he was still himself.
"Well, it's true, I do like Quidditch, aye…" He agreed sheepishly.
"Yeah." Katie acknowledged curtly. "I know you do."
"And," He eagerly added, hoping to improve his standings, "You are, ehm, quite pretty…"
But Katie never heard it, as she had rushed off up to the landing several steps above him as soon as she noticed the stairs were about to shift.
"Oliver!"
"Err…" Oliver reflexively clutched at the handrail, and could do nothing else but watch as Katie drifted further away from him (though, in fact, it was she who was standing still, and he who was moving).
The castle interior finally groaned to a stop and the two Gryffindors continued their way upstairs, albeit via separate routes.
Katie, Oliver noticed, barely even glanced in his general direction as they did so, but he didn't let that discourage him. After some cursory detours (and some deleterious curses), he managed to at least nearly cross paths with her, even if there was a stony wall between them.
"Bell…" He had to stand up on his toes to see her through one of the diamond-shaped windows hewn into the stone. "I…"
"I meant before all of that." Katie said suddenly, looking back at him, her cheeks growing warm.
Oliver blinked and trotted up to a closer hole in the wall.
"What do you…" Katie began, then took a deep breath. "…Do you still remember what happened on the pitch?"
"Ehm…" He swallowed at the thought of it. "Aye. Pretty clearly…"
She disappeared down another passageway.
"Would – you – rather…" Oliver called out as he jogged up a few steps at the end of hiscorridor, knowing it would lead him right to –
"Merlin!" She hissed, slamming into him.
Oliver staggered back a few steps from the collision, Katie safely caught in his arms, his school books and papers strewn across the floor. She looked at him warily.
"…Rather I didnae remember it?" Oliver finished.
"No, I was…" She blushed and extricated herself from his arms. "J-just checking."
He sighed. "Are you alright, Bell?"
"Fine…" She brushed a spot of dust off his robes, as if in apology. "You?"
"Aye. Though I was just thinking maybe we could, ehm, go to Hogsmeade, and have a butterbeer or something… to, err, celebrate my recovery?"
Oliver wasn't aware of it, but he had spoken magic words, which no 3rd year could resist.
"Sure, Capt'n." Katie smiled, her eyes brightening briefly. "I'll go tell the rest of the team, then?"
"Err, well… Maybe just the two of us?" He quickly ducked down and started collecting his things off the ground. "As thanks to you for, uh, taking care of my… of me… during the whole…"
The silence in which Oliver Wood awkwardly cleared his throat was nearly deafening to him.
Katie blushed lightly. "Are you asking me out, Wood?"
"If you don't want to…" He faltered.
She tidied up the short stack of parchment she'd picked up, to give her a moment to consider the offer.
A trip to Hogsmeade…
Butterbeer…
…With Oliver?
Well…
"I'd love to."